A Sound Of Thunder

Zord

Description:

Male Goblin
Green skin, Red eyes, no hair
3’2", 33 lbs

Bio:

As a Goblin infant, Zord was constantly breaking out of his cage and getting underfoot, much to the annoyance of the adult Goblins. The last time Zord escaped, he wandered outside of the village. This proved fortuitous, as a group of adventurers showed up a short time later, intending to relieve the local Human population of this Goblin infestation. The next few minutes, the air was filled with screaming, shouting, and more than a few death-cries. After the screaming and crying were done and the Goblins’ village was burned to the ground, there was still some shouting amongst the adventurers, only ending when one of their party turned her back on the others and stormed off.

Zelyahna, a Druid, had reservations about wiping out the Goblins. She saw them as a part of nature, the omnivores weeding out the weak & sick from the rest of the pack. That the others had refused to consider any other option to resolve the situation made the still-pond calm of her mind into raging, roaring rapids. She had hoped to convince them on the way there, but the bloodlust that the carnage brought up in them made it all too evident her words had fallen upon willfully-deaf ears. It would take some effort to achieve balance again in her mind.

As she passed through some bushes, she felt some sharp needles dig into her leg. Expecting to pick brambles off her leg, she reached down only to discover instead that a very young Goblin was gnawing on it, looking for sustenance. A hopeful smile spread across her face far sooner than she had thought it would have, as it occurred to her that there was, perhaps, another way to bring balance to the world.

The next dozen years were spent attempting to educate and train Zord in their new secluded home in the wilds. While he seemed to have troubles learning Common, he fortunately seemed to pick up Elvish far easier. He showed a natural propensity for the dextrous skills of the rogue, and sometimes could even sneak up and catch Mother off-guard. He learned about the animals and plants in the wild, paying attention to the poisonous and dangerous ones. But she also showed him the balance in everything: predator and prey, hunters and carrion-eaters. Nature was a balancing act that even the Goblins were an integral part of, and disrupting the natural order of things would lead to ruin for all, regardless of their part.
He eagerly learned how to trap animals and how to tell which kinds could afford to lose some of their number without severely impacting the balance. He was educated as to the perception of his kin, how others saw them as bloodthirsty animals and how the Goblins saw others merely as a source of food and supplies.

While she cared for him, she encouraged caution on his part when they were dealing with others, making sure he stayed hidden until company could be prepared for his appearance. And she was careful to leave him at home when she had to go into town for “errands” and supplies, expecting him to stay there, but the spectacle of even a small town drew his interest. He stealthily kept out of sight on these excursions… for the most part. The few times he was sighted showed him better than any talk with Mother exactly how other sentient species seemed to think about his race.

He became aware that not everyone respected the wilderness like Mother and the friends she had brought home to meet him. Beings of different races would come to the forest to chop down strong, healthy trees for building and fire, hunt game to the point that some species seemed to disappear altogether, harvest and trample unwittingly upon plants until they were all but gone as well. They were either ignorant or uncaring about the balance of nature, and though Mother did what she could to dissuade them verbally, her reasoning seemed to fall upon deaf ears again.

Zord saw, more than once, Mother and her friends rallying against the senseless destruction, taking up arms when words were insufficient. He witnessed the fury of their magic and arms and the ferociousness of the beasts called upon. He sometimes even aided, from concealment, using his arrows at opportune moments. If Mother and her comrades were aware of his involvement, they did not remark upon it. At least until after the last such mission.

The final mission that Zord was witness to was a trap. Mother and her friends had gone away to stop a new logging camp from destroying an area of woods, and though the camp had seemed empty, there had been a force of magic and arms expecting them, and the lot of them had fled or been captured or killed. The owners of the camp would arrive in the morning to deal with them personally.

Using stealth, blow darts, and his supply or paralytic venom and sleeping poisons, he slowly & carefully knocked out the guards and mages, and freed the prisoners. Unfortunately, Mother had been injured during the capture, and her friends were not sure of her chances. Even though it meant him going out into the world on his own, she weakly asked Zord to go do three things for her, no questions asked. He readily agreed, not even hesitating to answer.